Culture

It was a January afternoon in Table Top Wilderness, located 32 miles south of Phoenix, a region of flat-topped mesas, wide canyons, and desert ridges.

African-American and Indigenous history are colorful intertwined threads that run through the tapestry of the American story, sometimes unnoticed in the dense fabric and sometimes prominently displayed.

“I remember running into the open arms of my new family. Because of the (federal) Indian Child Welfare Act,” said Joseph Talachy, governor of Pojoaque Pueblo, at a Senate committee hearing on a state ICWA, “I was raised in a beneficial home.”

Diné language and culture teacher and COVID-19 survivor Albert Brent Chase says the many profound challenges, revelations and changes he experienced in 2020 are guiding his path of healing in 2021. “I, too, have suffered the grief and heartbreak that is ongoing with our people,” said Chase.

When the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe asked Diné filmmaker Melissa Henry for a brief movie about hogans for its permanent collection, Henry knew right away the film they DIDN’T want to make.